Managing Social and Environmental Performance: Do Companies Have Adequate Information?

The commonwealth government has again explored the issue of mandatory social and environmental reporting by companies. This paper reviews the for-and-against arguments. We investigate the capacity for Australian organisations to voluntarily provide adequate social and environmental information by undertaking an analysis of current reporting practices with a focus on the reporting of performance-related information. To understand whether Australian companies are achieving best practice we benchmark disclosure against a sample of British companies.     

RACIAL DISPARITIES IN FEDERAL DISABILITY BENEFITS

We estimate racial differences in the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) decision to award federal disability benefits using newly available data, multivariate econometric models, and Oaxaca decomposition methods. We focus on the appellate level of SSA’s disability decision‐making process. We find that for claimants represented by attorneys there is no statistically significant difference in benefit award rates between whites and African‐Americans. However, for claimants without attorney representation, we find sizable and significant differences between whites and African‐Americans. (JEL J15, H53)     

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
E. Wayne Nafziger and Juha Auvinen, Economic Development, Inequality, and War: Humanitarian Emergencies in Developing Countries.
Steve Striffler and Mark Moberg (eds), Banana Wars. Power, Production and History in the Americas.
Stefano Ponte, Farmers and Markets in Tanzania: How Policy Reforms Affect Rural Livelihoods in Africa.
Catherine Boone, Political Topographies of the African State: Territorial Authority and Institutional Choice.     

THE COST OF WASHING CLOTHES: SOURCES OF VARIATION

This paper develops the national average cost of washing clothes by examining consumer research data on the frequencies of using various water temperature settings and laundry additives and by utilizing national surveys of laundry product prices. Variations in these costs are shown to be significantly affected by three variables: (1) costs increase with family size due to the higher number of loads washed, (2) costs increase in areas where phosphate detergents are not available due to an increased use of hot water and laundry additives and (3) costs increase in harder water areas due to an increased use of hot water and fabric softener. The average increased cost for energy and laundry additives per family due to the nonavailability of phosphate detergents exceeds $11.00 per year. In addition to this amount, increased wear on washing machine parts and fabrics from the use of carbonate-built detergents significantly increases the costs to consumers in nonphosphate areas.     

Factors influencing the use of microwave ovens and video cassette recorders

The purpose of this study was to examine ownership of microwave ovens and video cassette recorders (VCRs) and factors influencing their use. Data were collected from 148 consumers who participated in an in-depth personal interview. For both microwave ovens and VCRs, ownership rates of the sample exceeded that of the general population. Five categories of microwave oven use were examined: use of the oven to heat water or leftovers, prepare convenience foods, prepare foods from scratch, use of alternative power levels and use of programmable features. Three categories of VCR use were examined: watch movies, tape shows to watch later and programming the VCR to record while no one is present. As the complexity of use increased, fewer respondents performed that task often. Use of microwave ovens was influenced by the innovation index score, presence of children, gender, age and education. Use of VCRs was associated with the innovation index score and age.     

Financial Reporting and the Austrian Theory of Entrepreneurship

The Austrian School of economics, with its emphasis on the market as a process and the role of the entrepreneur as the catalyst of that process, sheds new light on the social role of accounting. This paper examines the implications of the School's teachings to financial reporting, including its insistence on relegating accounting to the role of retrospective economic calculation, and the use of current cash equivalents for asset valuation. The Austrian School's replacement of neo-classical general equilibrium theory with a dynamic model of the market process offers accounting researchers some relief of having to cope with the real world of error, discovery, and disequilibrium.